Government officials among them Cabinet Secretaries are laying the ground for President Uhuru Kenyatta's Mt Kenya visit next month, the Star has established.
Officials told the Star Uhuru's tour is meant to pacify grassroots supporters who feel abandoned.
The President is also expected to comment on the Building Bridges Initiative task force and how it intends to address the poll violence witnessed every five years.
The officials said the tour intends to counter the narrative that Uhuru has starved the region of development.
“There are people who want to use Uhuru's influence so to bargain for the next polls,” International Centre for Policy and Conflict director Ndung'u Wainaina said yesterday on phone.
The tour is part of the Hotel La Mada meeting resolutions where participants agreed to explain progress on development projects in the region.
Uhuru was supposed to tour Central in May but the trip was postponed.
“The intelligence briefs urged the President not to tour before addressing concerns of residents unhappy with his administration,” an NIS official told the Star.
A report by the National Intelligence Service showed growing disenchantment in a region that voted for Uhuru overwhelmingly in the last two elections.
Those behind the development tour are Cabinet Secretaries Mwangi Kiunjuri (Agriculture), Joe Mucheru (ICT), Sicily Kariuki (Health), Peter Munya (Trade and Industrialisation) and James Macharia (Transport).
In the last three weeks, Kiunjuri has been in Murang'a, Embu, Kiambu and Nyeri distributing avocado seedlings and pushing state agenda.
Education CS George Magoha and his counterpart in Public Service, Gender and Youth Affairs Margaret Kobia were also in the county on August 10 to launch the national youth week.
Presence in counties
Energy PS Joseph Njoroge held a consultative meeting with leaders, businessmen community and other stakeholders to push the Jubilee agenda.
It is the same period that Macharia was in Murang'a to announce construction of a dual carriageway.
Water PS Wairagu Joseph is also spending more time in his home county inspecting national government projects.
“I know requests had been made to have both roads done but we decided to dual one and expand the other so that Murang’a people will not feel left out,” Macharia said.
He spoke on August 5 at Gaichanjiru Boys High School in Kandara during its 60th-anniversary celebrations.
In Nyeri, Mucheru and Muraguri held meetings with local leaders while Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, Mucheru and PS Karanja Kibicho camped in the region to supervise government projects.
They include Chaka market, a police post (constructed by an individual in Tetu) and upgrading of Kiawara police station.
Munya and Kobia have also toured Meru with numerous stopovers to inspect Uhuru's projects.
CS Kiunjuri and PS Micheni Ntiba visited Tharaka Nithi to supply avocado seedlings and inspect a number of government projects.
Projects to be commissioned
Officials told the Star that all state departments have already been directed to prepare projects that will be commissioned by Uhuru during the visit.
The investments will run across Kiambu, Thika, Murang’a, Nyeri, Embu, Nanyuki, Meru, Maua, Nyahururu and Rumuruti municipalities.
Though the visit remains a highly guarded event owing to security logistics, the Star established that Uhuru will launch the construction of Muthaiga to Gatundu highway.
Kenha has already marked illegal structures to be demolished along the road reserves.
Uhuru is also expected to launch the new KCC Igembe factory at Kangeta, Othaya Level 6 Hospital (to be renamed Mwai Kibaki Teaching and Referral Hospital) and construction of the Sh24 billion Karemenu dam in Gatundu North.
Chaka modern market, revamped Nyaribo airstrip, Igembe North subcounty headquarters and the Kaelo-Ndumuru-Kithetu-Mutuati road construction will also be launched.
